Do NOT Conform Any Longer

Romans 12:2

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I have read that verse many times before. I have heard preachers expound on it on various topics but I have never heard it, the way I did today. Today the Spirit of God spoke to me loud and clear as I studied money and giving and said just that first part of the verse.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world..."

I heard it as a command. I am no longer to think about money the way the world does. I am no longer to handle money the way the world does. I am to look to God for guidance on how to think and handle finances. The New living translation puts the second part of that sentence as follows:

"...but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

I must let him transform me. I must let him change my thought process. I must yield to God if I am to excel in the grace of giving. It is a radical place to be. A radical way to live. To those who are perishing it is foolishness, but to those who are looking to eternal life, this is pure wisdom and light.

May the God of all light illuminate our hearts, spirits, souls and minds so that we are transformed by him in our thinking and in our attitudes towards money and giving. And from today we conform no longer. We stop thinking about finances the way this world does and take a new approach. A Jesus approach.

Getting Our Minds Straight!

Yesterday I mentioned that I felt as if I had just been sucked into God's Gulf Stream current and that he was carrying me swiftly along with him as he went about his business. I am learning about another dimension of giving that goes beyond anything I have ever known. Until now I thought I was a giver, but looking at the Bible I find others who out gave me by much. My heart is now crying out to God for the grace of giving. Oh, that I may excel in the grace of giving!

God has called each one of us that is in the marketplace and strategically placed us where we are so that he can direct the wealth of the wicked into our hands through commerce. But what is the purpose of this wealth? Is it just so that we may live large and eat well and say "This is how the Lord honors those that love him!" I think not. I believe that God wants to bring this wealth into our hands so that we can make his world right again. We must have the mindset that the money belongs to him, and that we are only managers of his silver and his gold.

Haggai 2:8

'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty.

That said, we must therefore look at the work of our hands as a ministry. This is our calling. This is our ministry and we are anointed for it. The word anointing means "set aside for divine use" that means that we have been set aside for the holy use of the Lord in the marketplace.

Many times I have shared with you the scriptures found in Isaiah 45:1-7 and have told you often that this is my mandate in life. However, I have never fully understood how God intended to give me the "hidden treasures in secret places." Further, he says that he will set open doors before me so that gates are not shut. I just couldn't figure out how he was going to do that. Until yesterday. Finally, my eyes were opened. I felt like this person who had been staring at a wall, trying to find the secret passageway that led to the treasure. I knew that there was a secret passageway, but I just couldn't find it. So I stood there and just kept staring at the wall and asking God to reveal it.

Well, I found the secret passage way. Here it is:

Understanding that I am the steward and God is the owner of all the wealth he puts in my hand. Therefore I must always seek him for direction on HOW TO SPEND IT.

Understanding that he puts it in my world so that I can transform the world around me and make Christ known. Wealth is for spiritual and social transformation.

Understanding that this world is not my home and therefore this is not where I should pile my treasures. My treasures must be piled up in heaven where rust and moth cannot destroy.

Once you begin to get this concept, you will feel yourself sucked into God's current and the light bulb will go on in you as well.

Entering God's Current

I don't even know where to begin. In the next few days, maybe weeks, I will be blogging on giving more than usual. God is shedding so much light in that area. I am seeking more knowledge and wisdom in the area of giving because I know that if I can set my mind right, all these things shall be added unto me. And not just that, but I will be piling up for myself treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy.

I have heard it said before, "Find out where God is working and join him there" but I have never fully understood it. Jesus also said In Jn 5:17 "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." I have always wondered what that meant, and where exactly is God working and how can I join him. God is shedding light on that as well. We serve a mighty God. An awesome God who allows us to work with him on projects that are bigger than ourselves.

I feel like I have entered the current of the Lord. In the movie "Finding Nemo" all the sea creatures are migrating and little Nemo is swimming his little fins off when finally they get to the gulf stream undersea current and everyone stops flapping their fins. They just relax and let the current carry them effortlessly to where they are going. I feel like I have entered God's current and he is now carrying me effortlessly and swiftly to where I need to be. I will explain this as I move forward.

Giving is the Key. Giving is the true mark of a follower of Jesus Christ. If you say you love Jesus and are not a giver, you need to re-evaluate your salvation. Sela!

Without Spot or Wrinkle

You wake up in the morning and put on a spotless white gown or suit. It is beautifully ironed. Not a wrinkle to be found. Then you open the door and step out into a muddy, filthy slum. You walk through it all day, interacting with its people. A handshake here, a hug there, a quick kiss on the top of a chubby baby's head who has just come from being fed. Half the food is on his face and hands. Someone offered you a seat in a little mud hut and you sat a minute to speak words of kindness. At the end of the day you go home happy, but exhausted. You have accomplished much. One look in the mirror and it is obvious where you have been. Your white clothes are now full of spots and wrinkles. There is smudge of baby food on your chest where that baby touched you when you kissed his head. Some mud must have splashed on the bottom of your gown. Either way, you need to have it washed.

The Lord is ministering to my heart about righteous people whom he has saved, dressed in white and then sent out into a filthy world to be Christ to the people and fishers of men. As long as you are in this world, spots and wrinkles are inevitable. Getting downright filthy and wallowing in sin is rebellion, but a wrinkle here and a spot there are inevitable. As long as you know how to get them out.

Ephesians 5:25 - 27 states:

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

²⁶So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word,

²⁷That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless].

Keeping yourself holy and blameless is not possible all by yourself. There must be a reliance on the blood of Jesus that washes white as snow, as well as the washing of water with God's word.

I therefore admonish you with Peter the apostle:

2 Peter 3:14

"So then, dear friends, ... make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him"

Stay in God's word and ask God repeatedly to wash you with the blood of his lamb Jesus. Make every effort to be found without spot or wrinkle!

FROM THIS DAY ONWARD, I WILL BLESS YOU

I never cease to be amazed at the goodness of God. That he would care enough to tell his children what he is doing even before he does it. He is a good God and my soul shall ever praise him. This year has been amazing for me and my Church, Jubilee Christian Church. Why do I say that? Because God moved us to another level. The level of ownership. As we made the shift from the Ngara location to the Forest Road location, I saw that this transition was happening in the Spirit for many in the congregation as well. We were asked to give towards the purchase and renovation of the building, and many of us pledged to give whatever one agreed with God to give. It was an awesome time for any true son and daughter of the house.



We should have expected it, but many did not. Soon thereafter our finances were attacked seriously. Most people I know were struggling to bring in their pledges, but kept believing God anyway. I know that many have given to the building of God’s house sacrificially this last few months. Many, myself included, have fallen behind in our giving, but we are still committed to completing what we started. We shall not stop now. Building God a house has always been accompanied by demonic attack. Nehemiah and Ezra can testify to this. However, even though often there were delays, the work was always seen to completion because God was with his people. It is the same with us today.



The book of Haggai is only two chapters long but such a blessing at this time. It contrasts a period when the Israelites did not heed the call to build God’s house, and when they did. Chapter 1 opens up with God rebuking the people who were living large while the house of God was in ruin. God had cursed the work of their hands. The labor they put in was not equivalent to the output.

“ 6You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it…

9You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little; and even when you brought that home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house, which lies waste while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it].

10Therefore the heavens above you [for your sake] withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its produce.

11And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hill country, upon the grain, the fresh wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all the [wearisome] toil of [men's] hands”.



When these people heard the word of the Lord, they turned their hearts to him in repentance and he, being the darling he is sent word that he was with them. So their hearts were stirred and they built God a house. Just like we at JCC have been busy doing and continue to do.

Chapter 2 begins to describe the changes that God was bringing to their lives even as they built the house of God. He promised them that as they built his house he would be with them and that his Spirit would be in their midst. And then he added something else to it:

6For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake and make tremble the [starry] heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land;

7And I will shake all nations and the desire and the precious things of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts.

8The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of hosts.

9The latter glory of this house [with its successor, to which Jesus came] shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace and prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.



God was saying that as they built his house, he was going to shake the earth and bring the wealth of the Nations to them. All the precious things and desired things in the earth shall come to the house of the Lord. To his people. The silver is his and so is the gold and as we are building him a house he is shaking the earth to ensure that the wealth of the wicked is brought to his children who are mindful of his honor and glory. There shall be peace and prosperity. We shall know what it means to have the shalom of God. Nothing missing and nothing broken! It is our portion as we build God a house. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The glory of this end time Church, shall be greater than that of the first church because God shall send his glory on us in a mighty way.

I hear these words distinctly in my spirit today:


15And now, I pray you, consider what will happen from this day onward. Since the time before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, how have you fared?

16Through all that time [the harvests have not fulfilled expectations, for] when one has gone expecting to find a heap [of sheaves] of twenty measures, there were but ten; when he has gone to the wine vat to draw out fifty bucketfuls from the press, there were only twenty.

Vs 16 has been true for me on so many levels and my heart has been crying out to the Lord to bless me indeed, so that the expectations I have are fulfilled and even exceeded. There is a change in the Atmosphere!!!



18Consider, I pray you, from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was [re]laid, consider this:

19Is the harvested grain any longer in the barn? As to the grapevine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree--they have not yet borne. FROM THIS DAY ON I WILL BLESS YOU.

Of note is the mention of the grapevine, fig tree, pomegranate and olive tree. The first 3 ripen in August and September, while olives ripen from September to November. The dedication of the House of Restoration on August 1st will mark a shift for those who have given and continue to give towards the house of God.

“CONSIDER, I PRAY YOU, FROM THIS DAY ONWARD (AUGUST 1ST, 2010)… FROM THIS DAY ON, I WILL BLESS YOU.”

The blessing that we have sought, many times in tears will become ours. Our crop will ripen and the wealth of the Nations will come pouring in. In this year of distinction there has been much shaking and sifting, but now the harvest has come. I thank God for the harvest. I receive my harvest and bless the Lord abundantly for his goodness and mercy!



(All these beautiful pics of the Cathedrals of the world can be found on the sacred destinations website http://www.sacred-destinations.com/categories/cathedrals)

Googling vs Talking to God

I realized yesterday that though I talk to God about my issues I rarely sit with him and dwell on the work of my hands. Yet God has given me many ideas on how to go about handling my business. Sometimes I get frustrated with my work, and instead of sitting down with God and figuring my way out of the drama, I google strategies and plans. I felt really bad about that. So I have decided that on a daily basis, I will take my work, dreams, hopes and struggles before God and ask him to guide me and give me winning strategies for success. I know he will do it and will bless the work of my hands indeed. He is a good God!! If you have been like me, repent with me. God is our preserve and sustenance. How I love him!!

Cry Out For The Blessing

During my QT this week, my heart has been crying out to God to bless me indeed. I realize that I need the blessing to make life easier for me and to pave the way. Hard work is endorsed by the Bible, but by works shall no man prevail. It must be a combination of the two. I must work hard, but more importantly the blessing must be active in my life.

Jabez exemplifies this truth. He was a hard worker. More honorable than his brothers, but the results were not measuring up to the emotional turmoil or sweat of his brow. So one day he cried out for the blessing. And God honored him.

1 Chronicles 4:8-10

"Jabez was honorable above his brothers; but his mother named him Jabez [sorrow maker], saying, Because I bore him in pain.

Jabez cried to the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and You would keep me from evil so it might not hurt me! And God granted his request".


Our generation today does not value a blessing mostly because we don't understand its importance. The blessing will break through for you, where you cannot. It will open doors that are tightly shut. The blessing will bring the favor of God on your life. Have you ever wondered why Esau was so bitter with Jacob over the blessing? He understood that without the blessing his life was going to be very difficult. He would have to rely on his own hard work to get himself anything. The ease that comes from the blessing was never going to be his. Check this out:

Jacob: Makes me think of lush rain forest.

Gen 27:27-29

27 So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said,
"Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field
that the LORD has blessed.

28 May God give you of heaven's dew
and of earth's richness—
an abundance of grain and new wine.

29 May nations serve you
and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
and those who bless you be blessed."



Esau: Makes me think of Rocky Desert.

Gen 27:39-40

39 His father Isaac answered him,
"Your dwelling will be
away from the earth's richness,
away from the dew of heaven above.

40 You will live by the sword
and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
you will throw his yoke
from off your neck."



Wouldn't you wail too? Because of the blessing Jacob lived and thrived even through his uncles treachery and came out more abundant than when he had gone into the land of Canaan. It was not the sticks that caused the goats to be striped and speckled. It was the blessing that changed their genetic make up.

Value the blessing and cry out for it like Jabez. Cry out for it like Esau "Bless me—me too, my father!" and God shall grant your request too.

Waka Waka Lessons

Well, that was a hiatus wasn't it? Been gone a while, but I'm back with lessons from the final game of the world cup. Watching that game I couldn't help but notice how Spain kept playing an aggressive game. They kept possession of the ball knowing that if anything was going to happen, they would have to make it happen. Then I noticed that every chance they had they made an attempt at scoring. You have to take the shot when you see an opening. That's just that. So my lessons with sales and marketing are exactly that:

1) I need to be more aggressive. If I'm going to have any sales, I'm going to have to make them happen.

2) I must take every opportunity I see to make a sale.

I'm working on it. Are you?